EXCLUSIVE

"Lean on Me" star Jermaine Hopkins^[1] is becoming the king of big breaks when it comes to pot busts.

Jermaine pled guilty Wednesday to felony possession of marijuana ... according to court officials in Wake County, NC. We're told Jermaine pled guilty and was sentenced to a minimum of 4 months in prison. Now, here's the break -- that sentence was suspended.

That means Jermaine skates on jail time, and instead gets 24 months of supervised probation. If he screws up, though, he'll be headed to the slammer.

TMZ broke the story ... Jermaine was arrested back in October^[2] when cops found 5.7 lbs. of weed in his trunk. Jermaine also got probation in 2011 after he was busted for buying 200 freakin' lbs.^[3] of ganja from an undercover cop.

He'll now have to submit to drug testing as probation condition. 

FYI: North Cackalacky has not legalized marijuana, medicinal or recreational. 

References^ Jermaine Hopkins (www.tmz.com)^ was arrested back in October (www.tmz.com)^ buying 200 freakin' lbs. (www.tmz.com)

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